2009 Darwin Awards

Honoring Charles Darwin, the father of
evolution, Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene
pool--by removing themselves from it.

Mock Death
2009 Darwin Award Winner
Confirmed True by Darwin

(1 November 2009, Belgium) Police received a desperate call from a man who
had been attacked on a motorway near the town of Liege. When the policemen
arrived, they found Thierry B., 37, lying dead on the ground, his body
stabbed, his car burning. Witnesses had seen a big truck driving away.

But there was no evidence of fighting or struggling around the body--only
the knife wounds on his shoulder and neck. Puzzled, inspectors analysed
Thierry's cell phone calls. He had recently reconnected with an old
friend, a fact that intrigued Inspector Clouseau. I mean, Commissioner
Lamoque. Childhood friend, lost sight of for ten years, back in touch?
Lamoque asked the 42-year-old friend in for a chat about the roadside
aggression.

Turns out the dead man was aggrieved regarding insurance money he felt was
owed, but never paid, after his restaurant burned two years before. He had
asked his old friend to bring him a knife and a jerrycan of fuel, and leave
him alone on the motorway: a man with a plan to get the insurance money one
way or another.

The "victim" then set his car on fire, called police, and stabbed himself,
accidentally cutting an artery in his own neck. By the time his simulated
act of violence was over, he was over too, face against the ground ten
yards from his burned car. Roll credits on this little drama.